And finally - someone is paying attention to the exhorbitant salaries of executives

Love it or hate it, the stimulus package has passed - albeit with hardly any bi-partisan support, but pass it did nonetheless.

For years and years, CEOs and others of that niveau in their careers, have lived a lifestyle of ueberexcess - golden parachutes, private jets, corporate limousines, bonuses in the millions and on.

Now that President Obama is at the helm in the White House, he has taken the issue of executive pay to task.

Here is the link to the story that ran on AOL earlier today: http://news.aol.com/article/white-house-wants-changes-in-executive/344207 - as always, I encourage you to read the story in its entirety, but would like to let you know that the White House is watching. For those banks that are recipients of bailout monies, the bonuses for executives will be strictly limited - and rightfully so.

Here is an excerpt from the story: "The bill passed by Congress set executive bonus limits on all banks that receive bailout money. The amount of assistance will determine the number of executives affected, though top executives will be prohibited from getting bonuses or incentives except as restricted stock that vests only after bailout funds are repaid. Amounts also can be no greater than one-third of the executive's annual compensation." This sounds so much more reasonable than the millions of dollars in compensation and bonuses that we have become accustomed to seeing and muttering about in recent years.

One can only hope that board members and stock and shareholders begin to pay closer attention to the fat salaries and bonuses of their CEOs - this simply should not stand - they should be providing oversight, but apparently, as long as they are making enough monies in their shares, they have not been too bothered by the compensation packages.